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Regulatory watch: how we are building it

Knowing that a rule has changed is easy: it is published. The hard part is knowing whether it affects you, and what you have to do on Monday morning. This page explains how we intend to solve that, what is built and what is not. We would rather publish it like this than sell it as if it already worked.

Status as of today

Under construction. It is not included in the published prices and we will not charge for it until it works and is reviewed. If anyone offers you fully automatic, unreviewed regulatory watch for an industrial plant today, it is worth asking who answers when the alert is wrong.

Where the information would come from

From official sources, not blogs or third-party summaries. Almost every European gazette now offers structured machine access, which is exactly what makes automating the detection part viable.

ScopeOfficial sourceAccess
European UnionEUR-LexPublic machine interface
SpainBoletín Oficial del Estado (BOE)Public machine interface
FranceLégifranceInterface with prior registration
GermanyBundesanzeigerStructured XML download
AustriaRechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS)Public machine interface
United Kingdomlegislation.gov.ukStructured XML download

For the Netherlands and Belgium the connection work is still to be closed; when it is, it will appear in this same table with the specific source.

The chain, step by step

Read the gazette every day

An automated process downloads what was published and keeps only the subjects that matter here: industrial safety, chemicals, waste, water, emissions, pressure equipment, ATEX, occupational risk prevention.

Cross-check against the plant profile

Each plant records its activity, substances, equipment and permits in the panel. A change only becomes an alert if it touches one of those. Without that cross-check, regulatory watch is one more newsletter nobody reads.

Draft the note

The system prepares two paragraphs: exactly what changed, with a link to the official text, and what it implies for that particular plant. It is a draft, not an alert.

A person approves it or bins it

This step is not automated, and not for want of technical means: it is a matter of responsibility. If the system tells a chemical plant it no longer has to do something and gets it wrong, we are the ones who answer for it. So there is a button, and behind the button there is someone who knows the subject.

It reaches the panel and becomes a task

The alert appears in the plant's panel with its entry-into-force date, and can be turned into a task with an owner and a deadline. Who read it and when is recorded, which is what an inspection will ask you.

Limits we will keep in writing

  • This is not legal advice. It is a documented alert with a link to the official source, so that your engineer or adviser can decide.
  • We will never tell you to stop doing something without a person having reviewed and signed it off.
  • Every alert carries the official publication date, the entry-into-force date and the link to the text. No link, no publication.
  • If we get it wrong, we correct it in the panel itself and the correction stays visible; we do not delete the earlier alert.

When it will be ready

We are not going to give a date we cannot meet. What we will say: it goes live first for Spain and the European Union, subscribed plants are told before it is switched on, and it means no price increase for founding plants. When it is available, this page changes and says so with the date.

Which regulation keeps you up at night?

Tell us your activity and which rules chase you, and we put them on the list of the first ones we will cover. It is the fastest way for this to come out useful instead of generic.

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